Toyota Scion debuts at Montreal show

COURTESY OF TOYOTA CANADA

Toyota Canada introduced its new Scion lineup at the Montreal auto show, including the customized Scion XB.

John LeBlanc

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Opening the same week as the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the Montreal Internatiional Auto Show is often overlooked. But it shouldn't be.

The Québec event, which opened yesterday and runs through next weekend, officially kicks off the Canadian car show season. And with 19 Canadian-market premieres at this year's show, automakers obviously took advantage of the show's timing to preview new 2010 and 2011 models what will be entering showrooms throughout the year.

From the ultra-luxurious 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports, to the practical 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan, to the growing list of new small cars (like the new Ford Fiesta, Mazda2 and Chevrolet Cruze) the debuts range from one end of the new car market to the other.

The lone North American premiere is the Pinanfarina Bluecar, a five-door subcompact electric car that was first seen at the 2008 Paris show. Toyota Canada is using the Montréal event for the official debut of its new Canadian Scion lineup with tuner versions of its Scion tC, xB and xD.

"Scion's first 45 dealers have been selected and all are gearing up for our official Canadian launch in September, 2010," said Larry Hutchinson, speaking for Scion.

This year's show has also seen the debut of a new, national car award.

The 2010 Volkswagen Golf was selected for the inaugural The Car of the Year/La Voiture de l'Annee as awarded by The Canadian Automotive Jury.

The jury — I'm a member — is made up of 12 prominent Canadian automotive journalists. The group has a coast-to-coast reach in all forms of media including newspapers, radio, television and online.

From the initial Top Twelve finalists, the 2010 Golf was chosen as "the one and only, best of the best" of the current crop of new Canadian vehicles.

Love affair over?

The recent downturn in the U.S. new car market was visibly seen at this week's Detroit auto show.

Fewer automakers, fewer cars, less excitement.

A report from the U.S. Earth Policy Institute asks, is America's love affair with the car coming to an end?

According to the report, the total number of vehicles in the overall American car fleet dropped from 250 million cars in 2008, to only 246 million by the end of 2009.

Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, sees the shrinking U.S. fleet trend continuing through 2020 thanks to market saturation, economic uncertainty and a "declining interest in cars among young people who have grown up in cities," among other factors.

Ultimately, Brown thinks a shrinking fleet "will also largely eliminate the need for building new streets and highways, and will set the stage for increased investment in public transit and high-speed intercity rail."

Contributing to this was a lackluster 2009.

Sales of cars and light trucks in the U.S. ended up at the bottom end of the estimates. Americans bought only 10.4 million units, the lowest level in 27 years, Reuters reports.

`Unofficial' news from Audi

While automaker presentations from earlier in the week may be old news, there was still plenty of unofficial news from Audi at the Detroit auto show:

The second, smaller Audi E-Tron electric concept may go into production but not as an EV, according to a report in Autoblog.

The German automaker is apparently researching the possibility of creating a modular, mid-engine platform based on the new front-engine A8 and forthcoming A7 that may also include production versions of the Volkswagen Concept BlueSport and a next-generation Porsche Boxster/Cayman.

Nissan to sell low-cost cars

One of the many absent automakers from this year's Detroit show was Nissan. But that didn't stop the Japanese automaker from making news.

As reported in last week's Autonews, the super-low-cost cars debuting at this year's New Delhi auto show, including the Tata Nano, may eventually come to North America.

Without saying when they will arrive, Nissan announced its plans on bringing two cars to be sold for about US $10,000 each in the U.S. sooner than later.

The Mexican-made cars will be based on the automaker's new global subcompact platform. The unnamed models will be smaller than the current smallest vehicle Nissan sells here, the Versa.

In a separate report, Nissan also confirmed that its small Juke crossover, based on the Qazana concept, would be coming to North America after all.

More details are to come in February.

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